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FL72: Nigel Pearson wants Leicester response against Burnley

Nigel Pearson has demanded his Leicester side bounce back in the Sky Live clash with Burnley.

Last Updated: 14/12/13 12:31pm

Pearson: says his players will be up for Saturday's big game

The Foxes have enjoyed an impressive start to the season and currently sit one point behind Sean Dyche's Clarets.

However, successive losses on the road at Sheffield Wednesday and Brighton have seen Pearson's side surrender their position at the second tier summit.

Pearson told FL72-Preview that although he appreciates Leicester have surprised some by their position in the league, he wants his side to maintain the high standards they've set themselves this term and continue their push for the Championship crown.

"The disappointing thing with both of those games was that our own performances weren't at the standard that we've set," he said.

"To summarise the season so far, yeah, we're aware we've done better than a lot of people would have initially imagined we would. But we are trying to live in the present and we've got to get back to the standards we've set.

"We're still in a good position but you're always judged on your most recent results and our most recent ones haven't been as good as we'd like."

Visitors Burnley have also had to endure less-than-ideal results in recent weeks, securing their first win in six last time out with a 1-0 win over struggling Barnsley.

However, Pearson has a lot of respect for the Sean Dyche-governed Clarets and warned they have plenty of talent beyond their headline-grabbing frontline duo of Danny Ings and Sam Vokes.

Function

"Burnley are a very good side," he said. "They're a good team and that's been their huge strength so far this season.

"Yes, they've got a front two who work exceptionally hard and are in the goals but they've got a lot of other good players, too. Their work rate is very, very high.

"They also have a manager who is driven to succeed and sets high standards for the team and they function very well as a group."

Pearson is confident his side will rise to the challenge come kick-off on Saturday, though.

"We always look forward to these games, the players enjoy big occasions and I'm very confident the group of players I have are able to deal with that," he said.

"I know the shift of pressure and the shift of emphasis changes subtly form game to game but we try to do a job, as we always do.

"We've won games this year where we haven't played particularly well and there have been one or two where we've been beaten where we've actually played pretty well.

"But I've always felt we've had capabilities in games to get something out of them and it's not been too often we've been out of games.